"The legal press has compared Dewey's situation to the 1987 collapse of Finley Kumble. It was that year ironically, that American Lawyer published the first edition of its now heralded law-firm rankings, the Am Law 100, and ranked Finley Kumble #2. By year's end, the firm folded, in part because of rich guarantees to star laterals.

Twenty-five years later, 11 of those original AmLaw 100 firms are now extinct."